{"id":38845,"date":"2019-03-06T10:29:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-06T10:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/officer-fails-to-intimidate-12-year-old-journalist\/"},"modified":"2019-03-06T10:29:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-06T10:29:00","slug":"officer-fails-to-intimidate-12-year-old-journalist","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/officer-fails-to-intimidate-12-year-old-journalist\/","title":{"rendered":"Officer Fails to Intimidate 12-Year-Old Journalist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Conventional story says that journalists should avoid becoming a part of the story they are trying to cover. But when budding reporter Hilde Lysak left her hometown to chase a story, her steadfast fortitude enabled her to face off against an unexpected foe, earning her kudos from around the nation.<\/p>\n\n<p>Lysak, 12, publishes the Orange Street News out of her parents&rsquo; home in Selingrove, Pennsylvania but in February, she traveled to Arizona to file a story near the Mexican border. While riding a bike in pursuit of details, she was accosted by a local law enforcement officer.<\/p>\n\n<p>The officer asked her for identification, falsely claimed that her video recording of him was illegal, then threatened to have her arrested and placed in a juvenile detention center. He literally told her, &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t wanna hear about any of that freedom of the press stuff.&rdquo;<\/p>\n\n<p>Not only did Lysak refuse to stop recording, but she transcribed the interaction and posted the video to her news site. The resulting story went viral, and the city of Patagonia later issued an apology.<\/p>\n\n<p>From a statement by mayor Andrea Wood:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>We are sorry Hilde, we encourage and respect your continued aspirations as a successful reporter. We believe and fully support the constitutional right to freedom of speech in the public sector. We will not tolerate bias of any kind including infringement of freedom of speech.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\">Potential Preaching Angles:<\/h2>\n\n<p><em>When we armed with the truth, we don&rsquo;t need to be afraid of opposition. Even young ones can operate without fear if they submit to God&rsquo;s truth as the ultimate authority.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"> <\/h2>\n\n<p class=\"is-style-article-source\"> <\/p>","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3512,3701,3731,3935,3979,4276,4546,4568,4569,4703,5140,5161],"tax_ctp_topics":[395],"class_list":["post-38845","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-boldness","tax_ctp_tags-courage","tax_ctp_tags-danger","tax_ctp_tags-faith-feelings","tax_ctp_tags-fear-of-man","tax_ctp_tags-intolerance","tax_ctp_tags-news-that-illustrates","tax_ctp_tags-opposition","tax_ctp_tags-oppression","tax_ctp_tags-prevailing","tax_ctp_tags-testing","tax_ctp_tags-timidity"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Officer Fails to Intimidate 12-Year-Old Journalist - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/officer-fails-to-intimidate-12-year-old-journalist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Officer Fails to Intimidate 12-Year-Old Journalist - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Conventional story says that journalists should avoid becoming a part of the story they are trying to cover. 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Lysak, 12, publishes the Orange Read more...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/officer-fails-to-intimidate-12-year-old-journalist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/ogimage.png?resize=1200,628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"628\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CTpastors\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/officer-fails-to-intimidate-12-year-old-journalist\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/officer-fails-to-intimidate-12-year-old-journalist\/\",\"name\":\"Officer Fails to Intimidate 12-Year-Old Journalist - CT Pastors\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-06T10:29:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-03-06T10:29:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/officer-fails-to-intimidate-12-year-old-journalist\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/officer-fails-to-intimidate-12-year-old-journalist\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/officer-fails-to-intimidate-12-year-old-journalist\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Officer Fails to Intimidate 12-Year-Old Journalist\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"name\":\"CT Pastors\",\"description\":\"Timeless wisdom for pastors with forward-thinking solutions\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Christianity Today\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/logo_ctpastors_black.svg\",\"caption\":\"Christianity Today\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CTPastors\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/CTpastors\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Officer Fails to Intimidate 12-Year-Old Journalist - CT Pastors","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/officer-fails-to-intimidate-12-year-old-journalist\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Officer Fails to Intimidate 12-Year-Old Journalist - CT Pastors","og_description":"Conventional story says that journalists should avoid becoming a part of the story they are trying to cover. 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